Ok, this is, hand's down, the most complicated book that I have ever read. Kushiel's Dart, by Jacquiline Carey, reads like it was a writing challenge between Machiavelli and Richelieu as to who could come up with more plot twists, betrayals, political maneuvering, civil wars, invasions, captures, escapes, and torture scenes. Let's not forget the torture scenes - if there was a Kushiel's Dart drinking game and you had to drink every time Phedre gets tortured, you would be well and truly plastered by the time the 901 pages winds up.

It is a book that makes no compromises for its reader - if you want to follow the book, you're going to have to pay really close attention. Taking notes might be in order, just to follow the cast of characters. Hell, wouldn't hurt just to keep up with what kingdom you're in at any given moment. I can see why this book was recommended to me by tricksterquinn, and I can see why artaxastra recced it to her.

A truly, truly wonderfully dense world Carey has created, though. The depth of detail, especially in things like the marque of the Servants of Naamah, is really amazing. My only complaint is that Carey references, and gives tiny snippets of, poem after poem, but we never get to see the entire work. I'd love to see a book of Kushiel poetry.

So - many thanks for the recs. Gonna take a break to do something mindless, then move on to the next rec.